Our Master (MA) program in Logic and Philosophy of Science was founded in October 2012. It is an international MA program of the Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich.
LMU has a long-standing tradition in both philosophy of science and logic reaching back to the time of Wolfgang Stegmüller and Kurt Schütte. In recent years, this tradition has been revived by establishing two new chairs in logic and philosophy of language (held by Hannes Leitgeb) and in philosophy of science (held by Stephan Hartmann), and by founding the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP). Hannes Leitgeb was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2010. In 2012, a second Alexander von Humboldt Professorship was awarded to Stephan Hartmann. In 2021, Christian List joined the center as co-director. He holds the chair of philosophy and decision theory.
The MCMP provides a lively environment for studying logic and philosophy of science. The MCMP is embedded into the Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Studies at LMU which is one of the largest in the German-speaking world, covering a wealth of philosophical research areas, and attracting students and researchers from around the world.
Our MA program is not just open to philosophy and logic undergraduates but we also aim to attract undergraduates from relevant scientific disciplines, such as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, computer science, engineering, economics, linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, the social sciences or related disciplines.
Norbert Gratzl and Alexander Reutlinger are the coordinators of our Master in Logic and Philosophy of Science.
The language of the program and its courses is English.
The MA is a two-year program (four semesters, 120 ECTS).
The MA program in Logic and Philosophy of Science is free, apart from a semester fee of approximately 150 € for each student (including a student services contribution and a basic fee covering public transport in Munich, “Semesterticket”). Comparable MA programs in other countries — especially in the United States and the United Kingdom — typically have very high tuition costs. In Munich, however, students are expected to cover their own living costs including, for instance, expenses for accommodation and health insurance.
Although there are no internal scholarships available to MA students at the MCMP, there are a number of external funding organizations that offer financial support for MA students. One useful resource is the DAAD’s (German Academic Exchange Service) Scholarship Database. American graduate students can also apply for a Fulbright grant.
To complete the MA program, students must earn 120 ECTS (that is, credit points). Students are required to write a master thesis and complete the following course requirements:
A full description of all modules can be found in the modules catalogue for the "Master's Program: Logic and Philosophy of Science" (PDF, 535 KB) (Last updated: 29 October 2021).
To get an impression of what courses are taught in our Master program, please consult the LMU Course Catalogue (Vorlesungsverzeichnis).
Students who are admitted to our MA program are required to obtain a certificate in a basic German course of Level A1 (of the “Gemeinsame Europäischer Referenzrahmen für Sprachen”) until the end of the first year of their studies in the MA program. It is, of course, also possible to satisfy this require before starting the MA program in Munich. For further information about German courses see here:
Applications will be considered on a rolling basis from November 1st, 2023 until June 10th, 2024. We highly encourage students to apply early on. Applicants will receive an admissions decision no later than by the end of June 2024.
The application procedure includes:
Please submit your application via our online application tool. Please provide a personal email address (for the login credentials and the application form) that will be valid at least until November 2023.
Other forms of submission will not be considered. The application can be repeated once in case of rejection.
You may submit your application until June 10th, 2024.
To apply, please make sure to submit the following documents as PDF files:
International applicants must also apply at the International Office. The deadline for the winter term is July 15th. Waiting for our acceptance letter is not necessary and might not leave you enough time to provide all the necessary documents for your application at the International Office, so we encourage you to start the application process as soon as possible.
Please follow the instructions given on the site of the International Office.
Note that international applicants are admitted to the Master program only if they have been accepted by both, the MCMP – procedure (A) – and the International Office – Procedure (B). The letter of admission issued by the international office will tell you where and when to register. The enrollment period usually starts in mid-September. Here too we recommend to start the process early in order to be registered in time when the semester starts in October.
Since its founding in 2011 The Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) has rapidly become one of the largest research centers in formal philosophy and philosophy of science in the world.
The Munich MA in Logic and Philosophy of Science started in 2012. We offer world-class instruction and supervision in logic and computational philosophy, formal epistemology and decision theory, philosophical logic and philosophy of logic, general philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, philosophy of special sciences, and core analytic philosophy. In our short history, our graduates have gone on to enroll in some of the best PhD programs in the world, including: